Apollo Tyres to invest $1 billion on global expansion in 5 yrs

SummaryThe company plans to set-up two new plants in South East Asia and Eastern Europe.

mainly cater to the entire ASEAN countries and China, while 20 per cent of the production will be exported to Europe and Latin America," he added.

The proposed new plant in Eastern Europe will be for production of PCRs with an envisaged capacity of 7 million units per annum entailing a total investment of around US$ 350 million.

For the Kalamassery plant, which currently produces agricultural and industrial tyres, truck and bus tyres, Kanwar said Apollo Tyres will be investing about Rs 200 crore.

"We have taken a decision to convert this plant into a hub for production of OHTs. Only 10-15 per cent of the production from here will cater to the Indian market and about 85 per cent will be exported."

The company is looking at markets like the US, Europe, Australia and Latin America for the OHTs, he added.

On the expansion of the factory of its Netherlands arm Vredestein Banden, Kanwar said: "This is currently at a project discussion stage, but it will take about 15 months once we start it. What we are looking at is to increase the production capacity to 7.5 million per annum from the current 6 million."